Respect the rights of all political supporters

To some people, political signs seem to be fair game as a target for their own form of "political speech": blatant vandalism and outright theft.

But such actions should be denounced for what they really are: juvenile and criminal.

In the past month, the Reporter-Herald has received many calls from owners of signs for political candidates both local and national, Democratic or Republican office -- or in the case of the Ward 4 City Council election, unaffiliated -- regarding issues surrounding sign theft and vandalism. Despite what some claim, the sign damage has run the gamutof races. It certainly has not been an indicator that one side or the other has a predisposition to creating such damage.

Among the known instances of damage: A striking case of vandalism in which a person appears to have taken a reciprocating saw to a large candidate sign to remove the candidate's name; wholesale theft of signs for one candidate in a Loveland neighborhood; signs that have been painted over with spray paint with words unprintable in this newspaper; and incidents of paper signs being torn to shreds.

None of these efforts should be considered political speech at all. It is thuggery, and is un-American.

Elections in this country, down to the smallest of municipalities, are about ideas and the people who hold them. If the ideas being expressed by a candidate are so weak that it requires criminal action against the opponents to prop them up, we indeed are in trouble.

If you know of someone going out to make such an offensive act, turn them in. There are enough big issues facing this country, state, county and city that the actions of little people should not distract the voters.